05 March 2014

Sloaterboat, motorboat

I came across a fun video from last summer. At the time of this video, Jonathan was 5 (almost 6) and the twins, Simon and Clarissa, were 4 1/2. We had just been at swimming lessons where the instructor had said the following rhyme while twirling them around in the water:
Motorboat, motorboat, go so slow.
Motorboat, motorboat, go so fast.
Motorboat, motorboat, step on the gas.
The kids loved it, because when she "stepped on the gas", she spun them super fast in the water. On the way home from swim lessons, they all were practicing the motorboat poem. I could tell they didn't really understand the words. I don't think Simon knew what a motorboat was and I don't think any of them understood, even remotely, what "step on the gas" meant. But they LOVED their swimming instructor and they loved the motorboat activity, so they really wanted to learn the poem. It was fun to observe how they each wanted to say the English motorboat poem. Jonathan, who is the oldest, was the "English speaking authority", so he was able to correct his little siblings. It was cute that he corrected them, even though he also didn't really know how to say the words. It was interesting that he put in the German word "Step on auf gas." They are all anxious to learn more English, but are much more comfortable using German.


1 comment:

  1. Ha. That's pretty neat. I'd need a version in Spanish for our daughter, but it's always fun to hear different little ditties like these that kids take to.

    ReplyDelete

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Bilingual Baby Dream Team

Going on 20+ years of raising our bilingual babies...
I'm so grateful for a sweet husband who was willing to give this whole experiment a try and and that he was willing to speak German to our kids, even though his German exposure had been limited to a few semesters of college German. It's been one of the most fun and rewarding things we've done. The fact that our family speaks German has given us our own identity and helps the kids feel like they are a part of something special. And anything that helps your family feel special and connected is a good thing.